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June 29, 2008

G84: Astros 3, Red Sox 2

Dustin Pedroia homered in the third and Manny Ramirez donged in the seventh. Those two guys, plus Julio Lugo, each had two hits.

After Beckett (7-8-2-1-4, 111) left, David Aardsma allowed a one-out single to Miguel Tejada. Hideki Ojakima threw a wild pitch, moving Tejada to second, but got the second out. Pinch-hitter Mark Loretta singled to center to break the 2-2 tie.

In the ninth, facing Jose Valverde, J.D. Drew grounded to first and Manny walked. Mike Lowell forced Manny at second before Kevin Youkilis filed out to deep left center.

Tampa Bay beat Pittsburgh 4-3, so the Rays move into first place, .5 GA ahead of the Red Sox. The Yankees are 5.5 GB.

Beckett has allowed just two runs in his last two starts, against Arizona and Cincinnati, logging 15 innings in the process. ...

Moehler has been the most reliable arm since joining the rotation. Counting his impressive performance against Texas on Tuesday night -- 6.1 innings, one run allowed on five hits -- the Astros are 5-4 in Moehler's nine starts but could easily be 7-2.

5 comments:

By all means, bring in OKajima with a man on base. After all, it isn't as if he's proved beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt that he'll let the man score for certain---it's only HIGHLY LIKELY that he'll let him score.

Like the 2003 Red Sox, the 2008 model has a good record that still understates the strength of the team, and idiotic managerial calls like this are one reason why. Here are my top four choices of pitchers I would have rather had in there in that situation than Okajima: 1) Aardsma 2) Chris Smith 3) Javier Lopez 4 ANYBODY.

I also thought letting Beckett bat in the 6th was passive, wimpy and wrong. That inning was the best chance the Sox had for a big inning, and Tito gave away an out. But that's just me---he was going by the book, and probably most managers would do the same.There's NO excuse for using Okajima, however.